and left senator kerry the top candidate. today also marked a bit of a strange reversal for the senator because he spent decades serving on the senate foreign relations committee and the last four years chairing it. >> for 29 years, i've sat up on the dais where you aller and kind of looked down at the witnesses and wondered what they're thinking sometimes. as we question them if suddenly i am feeling a lot of sympathy for the folks who sit down here. >> shepard: he need not have worried. his colleagues weren't too tough on him. although they did have some questions about his priorities. mike emmanuel live on capitol hill. there was a lot of talk about iran today. >> indeed. and once he is confirmed secretary of state, it will be one of the major headaches, iran and its ambitions. senator kerry took heat for president obama's foreign policy which he supports, but says time is running out for the regime. >> the president has made it definitive. we will do what we must do to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and i re